I need help with ideas for simple art and crafts for 2 and 3 year olds.?

Question

I have a daycare. We do a lot of coloring and painting, but they can't really use scissors. Does anyone have ideas for art and crafts that 2 and 3 year olds can do? HELP!

Answer 1

Have the materials pre-cut for them.

visit   http://www.dltk-kids.com/     or zoomschool.com    for many ideas, this sites really help me a lot.  good luck

Answer 2

You may want to look up closed/answered questions as I have answered a few questions like this and they may give you ideas and websites to look on.

Ideas I can think of:

-threading-you either buy threading blocks from wesbites such as www.ttsgroup.co.uk-these can be various sizes eg: smaller hand held or laerger ones for small groups. You could always go cheaper by making your own threading template...have a range of ribbons, tinsel and things that children can freely add to the template. It is both creative and fine manipulate skills.

-Make musical instruments out of recyclables-cereal packets, pringles tins etc---you can make shakers by having 2 yoghurt pots and having rice in them. Then when dry you can have music session.

-Extend the painting such as feet painting or wearing wellies, large scale paintings (having wallpaper on floor or taped to outdoor wall)...you can extend further with textures such as sand in the paint or flour to thicken it.

-Glueing...like the musical instruments activity children can explore crafts through having a table full of boxes, lids, card in different shapes, sizes, string etc etc children can just make what they like-older ones can talk about it eg: build a rocket or train.

Answer 3

designing biscuits!

Answer 4

Check Usborne Books for some great activity and reference books, like Big Book of Playtime Activities.  With great books on hand, you will always have a reference to go back too!

Answer 5

cut out bunnies and have them paste cotton balls for the fur

have them make abc books for all the things they love, they can color a pic for each one (this one could last you a while)

take them outside and have them get things from outside they like and they can glue them to a sheet of paper..

get baby food jars put dirt in them and grass seeds, let kids decorate a face on the front and then water them, in time the grass will look like hair and they can cut there little friends hair and other things like that

Answer 6

fruit loop necklaces..just get a string and a box of fruit loops

Answer 7

Get baby food jars and let kiddies glue paper pieces on to look like shattered glass top with ribbon and mommies gift could even make paper flowers to go in.

get egg cartons the paper ones cut each holder off place up side down i per child they can paint color draw on and add pipe cleaner for legs you have either a turtle or spider you (the TEACHER) add eyes from craft store

Answer 8

Hi if you want some FAB scissors for 2 yr olds try Baker Ross the do little scissors with a plastic kind of spring which allows the little ones to cut with ease. They kind of  spring back open into the correct position for them to practise snipping. They work a treat in my class. Also cutting up old birthday cards and play dough rather than paper.

Answer 9

hi  why cant you make shakers

just take 2 paper tumblers

just put some beads little bit bigger ones

so that it wont choke them.then tape both tumbler facing each other so that it will be closed.

put some pompoms ,ribbons keep buttons for eyes nose and lips.it looks great,i've tried it for my son

Answer 10

one word playdough fun for any age. i still play with playdough

Answer 11

SUPPLIES:

clear contact paper

items for a collage

cut the contact paper to whatever size you want but with little ones usually 8 1/2  x 11 is a good size.  remove the backing paper (keep).  place the clear part sticky side up on a table.  tuck the corners under to hold the paper in place.  allow the kids to put on and take off the collage pieces until they are satisified with their masterpiece.  sometimes you can replace the backing to seal the creation.

variation:  do the same as above but put a picture of the child picture side down on the sticky sheet, place in a poem about dads and let the child dribble confetti and glitter.  seal and give to dad as a dad's day gift. (can also be done for mom or any other occassion.)

Answer 12

If the kids enjoy dinosaurs, let them paint dinosaurs! Maybe you could also make life savers necklaces, or make stuff out of clay. It seems simple.

Answer 13

Finger paint is great but at that age so is using glue. Kids love to rip paper so let them rip paper in different sizes and paste to construction paper. also pasting cheerios to paper can be fun for them.

A felt board is a really fun idea for kids to play with you can attach a large felt to a wall and let kids move stuff houses,trees,people,dogs,cats ext. around and use their imagination or use it for story time.

Answer 14

Well, my first response was...teach them to use scissors.  I start at about 18 months old.  Usually at this age I use the plastic scissors and playdough but by 2 years we are using typical "preschool" scissors.  Takes a bit of time but it is a skill that is used frequently.   I find with this age that using a wading pool and placing various types of paper/foam/STRAWS!!! in the pool with a pair of scissors is the best route to go.  Their work stays contained in the pool.  To add a little more interest, provide a colored posterboard cut out into a simple theme-related shape and have them glue their scissor work to the poster board or provide sticky side out contact paper for them to put their work on.

I'd steer away from crafts at this age.  It usually ends up being the adult's project and not the child's so let's see.  I do a lot with painting too.  Fingerpaint, watercolor paint, paint with texture, paint at easel, table top painting, marble painting, sponge painting, playdough cutter printing, textured tool painting, imagination paper painting, painting on related colored paper, painting on complentary colored paper, painting on textured paper, painting over stencils, fingerpainting and printing, fingerpainting on bubblewrap with lots of soap (makes neat bubbles), shape related printing painted, painting with cups (if you do this with soapy paint...it makes a bubble on the paper and then it pops into a neat design), I use 2 primary colors and then the 3 primary colors (which make brown).   There is so many things you can do with paint...so keep it up...just vary it...this works best for this age.

The other thing I do quite a bit with this age is collage.  They need the practice of gluing.  I usually provided a theme related shape and related material.  Just use your imagination.  Use various types of glue...liquid, glue stick, glitter glue, homemade paste, etc.

Sand art is very popular and really the popular part is the glue.  It's the one activity that allows them to squeeze that bottle of glue to their hearts content.  It's fun to drizzle as well...corn syrup drizzing (you can color it with food coloring) is very popular as well but it's not a "take-home" project as I've yet to get them to dry...goes along with the foamies and vaseline (I wrapped aluminum foil on cardboard for both of these projects)  They do not dry but it's the process not the product, correct?!

A variation of the collage...They placed glue in any type of line and put a length of yarn on their glue line.  Then they filled each segment with a different material.

Rubbings- make your own texture/shape rubbings (wikki stix make neat line designs for rubbing-you can create their names) or purchase alphabet/number/animal rubbing plates.  Tape them to the table or wall or floor or on trays (for individual use) and put paper over top.  It's more fun not to tell them it's there but to just demonstrate how to use the crayon to rub and then let them find out on their own.

Do a dots...always a hit with this age...sometimes I provide the actual do a dot paper that has all the circles...great for 1:! correspondence/eye-hand coordination.  I've rubberband two green and a red together in December.

Have you ever looked at the Mailbox Magazine-preschool?  An abundance of ideas for you and I use them with my younger children as well.

Good luck!

Edit:  I just thought of something else that I've done recently.  Coffee filters are really neat.  I do a color mixing exploration.  Eye dropper and icecube tray.  I put red, blue, and yellow water in a section (away from each other) and just a wee bit of non-colored water in a few of the others. They use eyedroppers to mix the colors.  I had a tray with the cone shape coffee filter made into a butterfly and they dripped their water onto the coffee filter.  Even if they make all brown water...colors will show up on the coffee filter as they separate.  :-)   We added a pipe cleaner body/attanae and sang Flitter Flutter Butterfly....floating through the bright blue sky etc.